A Russian national living in Sacramento pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to attempting to provide financial support to a foreign terrorist organization in Syria.
Murat Kurashev, a 36-year-old handyman, entered the plea before Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller without any plea agreement from prosecutors and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Kurashev appeared in court in an orange Sacramento jail jumpsuit with waist shackles and used a Russian interpreter to enter his guilty plea.
The FBI arrested Kurashev in February 2021 after his indictment by a federal grand jury on a charge that he attempted to provide “material support or resources” to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, also known as HTS.
HTS also is known as the “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant,” according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and once was affiliated with al-Qaeda. HTS later split off and aimed to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to CSIS.
Court filings say Kurashev attempted to provide financial support to the group despite knowing that HTS “was a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” and that evidence in the case included a video of HTS fighters that Kurashev watched while driving on a Sacramento-area freeway.
Prosecutors say in court papers that between July 2020 and February 2021, Kurashev used web-based money transfer services to send $13,000 to two couriers working for Farrukh Fayzimatov, an HTS fundraiser who the Treasury Department says “utilizes social media to post propaganda, recruit new members, and solicit donations for HTS.”
“Records obtained from the money transfer services corroborate multiple transactions from Kurashev to the couriers in Turkey usually in increments of $1,000,” court papers say. “The couriers retrieved the funds often within 24 hours of transfer.
“Surveillance footage from money transfer businesses captured Kurashev in the midst of the transactions. The FBI also located evidence on Kurashev’s phone that shows that on or about February 10, 2021, Kurashev transferred $200 worth of Bitcoin directly to a wallet for Fayzimatov.
“Fayzimatov sent the wallet address directly to Kurashev via an encrypted mobile messaging application on the same day. Kurashev responded, ‘sent.’ It appears that Kurashev attempted to delete these messages from his cellular device.”
Prosecutors wrote that investigators’ review of social media and encrypted messaging discussions between the two “demonstrated that they believed that providing money in support of the HTS’s fighters was tantamount to being engaged in violent jihad.”
“During these conversations with Fayzimatov, Kurashev mentioned that he wished he could join the fight in Syria as a mujahideen and regretted that he could only provide financial support,” prosecutors wrote. “The conversations between Fayzimatov and Kurashev make clear that Kurashev was fully aware of Fayzimatov’s participation in and work on behalf of HTS and his violent extremist ideology.”
Some of the online solicitations Kurashev viewed sought funds for “military equipment, boots, clothing, firearms, and, in one case, a motorcycle,” court papers say.
“Moreover, FBI forensic analysis of Kurashev’s Apple iCloud account revealed it to be replete with violent extremist content, including at least one video depicting HTS fighters,” documents say. “It appears that Kurashev watched this video while driving his work van along Interstate 80.”
Kurashev, who is in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail, faces sentencing March 18.
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